Secret Handshake Cinema

Secret Handshake Cinema Patron

Favorite films

  • Blow Out
  • Miami Vice
  • Phantom of the Paradise
  • Streets of Fire

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  • Hell in the Pacific

    ★★★★

  • Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

    ★★★★★

  • Streets of Fire

    ★★★★★

  • The Fabelmans

    ★★★★½

Recent reviews

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  • Hell in the Pacific

    Hell in the Pacific

    ★★★★

    Boorman, a filmmaker who always sought to move through his narratives visually without much guiding dialogue finally strips it all away to create pure id cinema. Two guys with no understanding of one another forced to speak in furious grunts and deliberate eye movements, their desperation dipping into surrealistic flourishes. Boorman never gave a shit if you liked what he was laying down. He just had to do it. This one benefits so much from being thrown in the deep end from the outset. Strong work from one of our best. (BJS)

  • Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

    Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

    ★★★★★

    November marked the tenth anniversary of surreal, art house action masterpiece Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning and to commemorate this wildly special film Staff Writer Brandon Streussnig did a series of in depth interviews with star Scott Adkins and writer/director John Hyams.

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  • Streets of Fire

    Streets of Fire

    ★★★★★

    "I've got a dream 'bout a boy in a castle
    And he's dancing like a cat on the stairs
    He's got the fire of a prince in his eyes
    And the thunder of a drum in his ears
    I've got a dream 'bout a boy on a star
    Lookin' down upon the rim of the world
    He's there all alone and dreamin' of someone like me
    I'm not an angel but at least I'm a girl..."

    Secret Handshake Spine #43: Walter Hill's rock and roll action cinema fever dream.

  • The Fabelmans

    The Fabelmans

    ★★★★½

    Fifty-plus years into possibly the most storied career in American filmmaking, Spielberg provides a melancholy kaleidoscope through which you're supposed to now view a body of work you've probably already watched a million times over. Sure, the child of divorce stories were already well-trotted territory when discussing CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, and the Peter Pan Syndrome literalized in the (godawful) HOOK. Plus, there's confrontations with his own Judaism in both SCHINDLER'S LIST and MUNICH. Yet THE FABELMANS seems hellbent on not only…

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